The Biology Department is proud to announce these two UNC Teaching Awards presented to Biology Faculty members. Assistant Professor Amy Shaub Maddox received the “William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching”, and Professor Bob Goldstein received the “Chapman Family Teaching Award”. Each of these awards is given annually for instructional work with undergraduate students. Amy and Bob are both grateful to the nominating committee, as well as the receptive and thoughtful students who wrote recommendations on their behalf!

The final version of the “Climate Science Special Report.” coauthored by Biology Professor John Bruno, was recently released. As the first of two volumes of the 4th National Climate Assessment, the CSSR describes physical and chemical changes to the nations land and coastal waters, e.g., in weather, ocean chemistry, and global temperature. A key finding was that based on extensive evidence it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. This nearly 500 page document is considered the world’s most comprehensive and up to date synthesis of climate change science. Volume 2, which will be about the effects of climate changes on people and the oceans, will come out in Dec. 2018.

Congratulations to UNC’s Ted Salmon and Keith Burridge, among this year’s class of “American Society of Cell Biology Fellows”. “The ASCB Fellows Award recognizes ASCB members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of cell biology and to the community of cell biologists through their service to ASCB.”

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of retired UNC Biology Professor and former Chair Dr. Lawrence I. Gilbert on Oct. 31, 2017. Dr. Gilbert’s research interests included insect endocrinology, biochemistry and molecular biology. The major effort in his laboratory was to determine how hormones controlled developmental processes, using insect metamorphosis as a model. Dr. Gilbert was a member of several panels, a member of seven editorial boards, executive editor of Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the 1995 AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The lab of Amy Shaub Maddox has renewed their NIH R01 grantentitled “Mechanisms of Cell Shape Change in Cytokinesis.” This funding will allow them to explore the molecular and mechanical mechanisms of time-delayed negative feedback in the actomyosin contractile cytoskeleton that underlie the dynamics they recently discovered, such as speed oscillations. Current lab members Michael Werner, Daniel Cortes, and Katie Rehain-Bell contributed the preliminary results that made this proposal a success.

Congratulations to these UNC-CH students, enrolled as Biology majors or double majors, for their Fall 2017 induction into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. At the November 6 induction ceremony, new members received certificates and Phi Beta Kappa keys, the organization’s symbol.

The new inductees are:

Seth Mckenzie Alexander, Brittney M. Allyn, Anita Amin, Alexander Ross Bennett, Margaret McIellan Bryant, Jen-hsuan Chu, Mallory Renee’ Croley, Carolyn Jean DaVanzo, Claire McBride Drysdale, Gabriel Christian Gonzalez, Alison Nancy Hollis, Nile Foxx Iverson, Vishal Balasubramanian Iyer, Brooks James Knighton, Christina Rayen Kresser, Katherine Anne Kruse, Boateng Appiah Kubi, Savannah Ashley Loehr, Alexander Matthew Payne, Kayley Peters, Jamie Austin Rose, Nishita Tusha Sheth, Sydra Larab Siddiqui, Daniel Lee Stickel, Lauren Ann Sugarman, Kristin Grace Weiss, Wilfred Chad Wong, Sarah Kathryn Yaghoubi, Shan Shana Yu, and Angela Lee Zhang. 

Congratulations to Diana Chong and Zhixian Yu, both former graduate students in Vicki Bautch’s lab, for their recent publication “Tortuous Microvessels Contribute to Wound Healing via Sprouting Angiogenesis” in ATVB Journal.

Congratulations to Leslie Kennedy and Erin Kaltenbrun, PhD students in the Frank Conlon lab, for their PLoS Genetics publication titled “Formation of a TBX20-CASZ1 protein complex is protective against dilated cardiomyopathy and critical for cardiac homeostasis.” This study brings a labeled quantitative proteomic approach to study the mechanisms of the congenital heart disease dilated cardiomyopathy.

Daniel McKay, Ph.D. (Biology, Genetics, iBGS) has received a 4-year Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society to explore how the switches that control gene expression get turned on and off during development.

Bryan Reatini’s (Todd Vision’s lab) work in the Galápagos Islands this past summer was recently featured in a photo essay in UNC’s endeavors magazine. “Reatini wants to learn more about how invasive and endemic species of guava are evolving on the islands, and whether or not hybridization is occurring between them.”